Survey of Job Openings in the Milwaukee Metropolitan Area: Week of October 15, 2001

The week of October 15, 2001, an estimated 21,745 full and part-time jobs were open for
immediate hire in the four-county Milwaukee metropolitan area. These openings are the result
of company expansions, labor shortages in difficult to fill positions, seasonal fluctuations, and
normal turnover among the 819,019 employed workers in the area. The job vacancy survey was
conducted for the Private Industry Council of Milwaukee County by the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee Employment and Training Institute.

Total Openings

In October employers were seeking workers for an estimated 12,218 full-time and 9,527 part-
time openings. The largest numbers of full-time openings were concentrated in service
industries (42 percent of total openings); finance, insurance and real estate (18%); and retail and
wholesale trade (17 percent). Part-time openings were concentrated almost entirely in the
service sector (48 percent) and retail trade (37 percent).

Openings were the lowest ever for the month of October since the job openings survey began
in 1993. Only 1 out of 10 employers reported openings, compared to almost 1 out of 4 in
October 1998. Declines were sharpest in the outlying areas where employers reported 7,385 job
openings in Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington (WOW) counties, down by half from 15,688
in October 1998. In Milwaukee County job openings totaled 13,824, compared to 19,487 in
October 1998.

Declines in full-time openings were greatest in manufacturing which dropped 69 percent
and retail trade which posted a 59 percent decline since October 1998. Part-time openings saw
the largest drop in retail which showed a 42 percent decline.

Job demand remained
strong, however, in the health care and construction sectors where full-time openings made up
over 25 percent of full-time and part-time openings.

Wage Rates

In October 2001, less than 1 percent of openings paid minimum wage ($5.15 an hour)
or below. The average wage for entry-level jobs with no experience or training requirements
was $8.08 for full-time openings and $7.37 for part-time work in October 2001.

In
October 2001, 87 percent of full-time openings could support two persons above the poverty
level, and 79 percent offered wages sufficient to support three persons above poverty and offered
health insurance. However, only 59 percent of full-time job openings with no education or
experience requirements offered health insurance and family-supporting wages for three-person
families.

In Milwaukee County the total number of jobs available (7,646 full-time and 6,178 part-
time openings) fell short of the number of officially counted unemployed job seekers (26,371
workers). Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington counties with lower unemployment levels (3.0
to 3.2 percent) showed 10,735 unemployed adults compared to 4,346 full-time and 3,039 part-
time job openings.

In the central city neighborhoods, job openings (1,666 full-time and 1,049 part-time) fell
far short of the estimated 13,132 unemployed persons considered actively seeking work in
October 2001 and 4,737 cases receiving "W-2" welfare payments.

Education and Training Requirements

The high demand for trained workers continues. Seventy-seven percent of full-time
openings required education, training or occupation-specific experience beyond high school. The
survey showed an estimated 8,004 full-time jobs for experienced or technically trained workers,
with 50 percent of these jobs identified as difficult to fill. Employers reported that 43 percent
of the 1,901 jobs for persons with four-year college degrees (or more) were difficult to
fill.

One-fourth of all job vacancies were concentrated in the health care area where
an estimated 2,974 full-time and 2,609 part-time jobs were open, including 1,689 openings for
nurses, 660 for nursing and patient care assistants, 359 for licensed practical nurses, 207 for
pharmacists, 217 health aides, 180 radiologic technicians, and 573 other health technicians
(including pharmacy technicians, phlebotomists, medical technologists, and surgical
technicians).

Fifteen percent of full-time openings and 39 percent of part-time openings were entry level
jobs with no education or experience requirements. Another 7 percent of full-time openings and
8 percent of part-time openings required high school completion but no experience or training.
However, most full-time entry-level jobs were concentrated in the WOW counties (49 percent)
and the Milwaukee County suburbs (21 percent of jobs). Entry-level jobs in the City of
Milwaukee were concentrated in eating and drinking establishments (31 percent of openings) and
grocery stores (16 percent of openings).

An estimated 715 full-time and 487 part-time jobs required possession of a valid driver's
or chauffeur's license. These included openings for 290 truck drivers (delivery, concrete, long-
haul), 367 driver-sales workers, and 140 construction site workers, as well as openings for van
drivers, parking lot attendants, and other transportation workers.

FULL-TIME
POSITIONS WITH 100 OR MORE OPENINGS (Jobs in bold showed at least
100 openings identified by employers as difficult to fill)

Four-Year College Degree or More

financial services sales occupations

registered nurses

electrical, electronics and mechanical engineers

Certification, License, AA Degree, or Experience Required

registered nurse

financial services sales occupations

licensed practical nurses

helpers, mechanics, repairers

nursing and personal care assistants, aides, attendants

health technologists and technicians

supervisors and proprietors, salaried sales occupations

sales representatives and other business service sales positions

general office and
record clerks

early childhood teacher's assistants

motor transportation occupations, vans and autos

truck drivers

retail sales workers

High School Completion, No Experience Required

financial services sales occupations

cashiers and food counter workers

No Experience or Education Required

financial service sales occupations

food preparation workers

retail sales workers

waiters and waitresses

insurance sales occupations

cashiers and food counter workers

PART-TIME POSITIONS WITH
100 OR MORE OPENINGS (Jobs in bold showed at least 100 openings identified
by employers as difficult to fill)

Four-Year College Degree or More

registered nurses

Certification, License, AA Degree, or Experience Required

registered nurses

nursing and personal care assistants, aides and attendants

licensed
practical nurses

early childhood teacher's assistants

sales occupations, business services

financial sales occupations

health technologists and technicians

retail sales workers

waiters and waitresses

driver-sales workers

food preparation workers

interviewers and receptionists

High School Completion, No Experience Required

retail sales workers

sales representatives, manufacturing and wholesale trade

No Experience or Education Required

retail sales workers

early childhood teacher's assistants

waiters and waitresses

food preparation workers

janitors and cleaners

information clerks

cashiers and food counter workers

cooks

nursing and personal care assistants, aides and attendants

interviewers and
receptionists

Background on the Milwaukee Labor Market
Project

This report was prepared by John Pawasarat, Director of the UWM Employment and Training
Institute, with assistance from Lois M. Quinn, Senior Research Scientist, and student research
assistants Erin Eklund, Cordella Jones, Vincent Pederson, Christina Navarro, Sarah Stoecker,
Katie McCoy and Elizabeth Chudnow. Milwaukee is the first major city in the country to
regularly study job openings in order to assess the number and type of jobs available, pay rates,
job locations and the level of skill training employers need to fill full-time and part-time
openings. In 1998 the U.S. Congress adopted the Milwaukee Labor Market Project's job
openings survey design as a national model. Summaries of job openings reports for prior years
(1993-2000) are available. The 80-page
manual on how to conduct job vacancies studies is
online.